2003/01/31 by S. Sabatini, Jonathan S. Davies, J. Davies +9 · 3 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #CCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06484.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 341 (2003) 981 · 12 pages, 14 figures (fig 4,6 are poor quality for size reasons). Accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2003/02/05 · openalex publication_date 2003/05/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The widely varying dwarf galaxy counts in different environments provide a strong challenge to standard hierarchical clustering models. The luminosity function is not universal, but seems to be strongly dependent upon environment. In this paper we describe an automated procedure for detecting and measuring very low surface brightness (LSB) features in deep CCD data. We apply this procedure to large-area CCD survey fields of the Virgo cluster. We show that there are many more faint (−10 ≥MB≥−14) LSB galaxies than would be predicted from extrapolation of the Virgo cluster catalogue luminosity function. Over our limited range of measurement, the faint-end slope of the luminosity function becomes α=−1.6. The luminosity function is flatter in the inner regions of the cluster than it is in the outer regions. Although these galaxies contribute a small fraction of the total stellar light of the cluster, they may contribute significantly to the mass in galaxies if they have large mass-to-light ratios similar to those recently measured for Local Group dwarf galaxies.